Heritage Agencies and the Conservation of Brazilian Modern Masterpieces: A Partial Report

Carlos Eduardo Dias Comas Faculty of Architecture, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Heritage agencies have been protecting modern architecture in Brazil since 1948, starting with Os- car Niemeyer’s Pampulha Chapel. So far 75 modern works have been listed mostly because of their artistic value. Listing prevents demolition. Unfortunately, it does not ensure proper conservation, and many interventions have disfigured works of architecture listed as modern masterpieces. Among those tolerated by the Brazilian heritage agencies, an early one is the roofing of the balconies of Oscar Niemeyer’s Ouro Preto Grand Hotel. Among those ap- proved were the construction of theatres diverging from those designed but unexecuted at the time of the listing, and renovations associated with the introduction or updating of air conditioning systems. The former included one by Niemeyer himself, at his Ibirapuera Park complex, and another at Affonso Eduardo Reidy’s Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro. The latter included the Pampulha Dance Hall, two Ibirapuera Park Pavilions, and the Planalto Palace. The paper analyses these retrofits along with the restoration project of Reidy’s Pedregulho Housing Estate, and discusses the connections of the heritage agencies’ stands regarding these interventions with scientism and the traditions of the conservation field. It suggests a bias of the agencies toward affirmation of historical values and celebration of picturesque disorder, and defends the need for their reorientation towards affirmation of the modern compositional logic.

KEYWORDS modern architecture, heritage agency, Brazil, conservation case studies

Received April 10, 2018; accepted June 6, 2018.

SPHAN, DPHAN, IPHAN and Other de Andrade was a lawyer by training, but most of his suc- Heritage Agencies in Brazil cessors have been architects, remarkable exceptions being Brazil Builds: New and Old 1652–1942 (Goodwin and graphic designer Aluisio Magalhães (1927–1982), presi- Kidder-Smith 1942) is the title of the 1943 exhibition dent from 1979 to 1982, who emphasised the recognition at MoMA that publicised the emergence of a Brazilian of cultural goods by their social value instead of their es- school of modern architecture led by Lucio Costa (1902– thetic values or erudite characteristics, and historian Katia 1998) and based on Rio de Janeiro (Comas 2002). Surpris- Bogéa, who was inaugurated in 2016, the first president to ingly, given the revolutionary stance of modern architects rise from the rank and file (Schlee 2017a, 2017b). elsewhere, Costa and his colleagues were also staunch In its 80 years of existence, the agency changed supporters of SPHAN—Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico names many times, as shown in its informative web site, e Artístico Nacional, an agency of the Ministry of Educa- www.iphan.gov.br. It became DPHAN—Diretoria do tion founded in 1937 to protect the Brazilian heritage, pre- Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional in 1946, and sided by Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade (1898–1969) IPHAN—Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico until 1967. Indeed, Costa would soon be employed by the Nacional in 1994. It is now sub-ordinated to the Minis- agency, as many other talented modern architects, includ- try of Culture instead of the Ministry of Education. With ing for a while Oscar Niemeyer (1907–2012); Costa would headquarters in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, the agency become Director of Studies and Listings in 1946, a posi- comprises twenty-seven state-based branches, called tion he kept until his retirement in 19721. Mello Franco Super-intendências, and twenty-seven city-based offices

C. E. Dias Comas 35 around the country, called Escritórios Técnicos, plus four because of their artistic value above and beyond any utili- special units, one in Brasilia (Centro Nacional de Ar- tarian traits, including exceptional works of architecture. queologia, dealing with the conservation of archeological The last book, Livro do Tombo das Artes Aplicadas, the remains), and three in Rio de Janeiro (Sítio Burle Marx, Book of Applied Arts Listing, is where cultural goods where the famed landscape architect lived and worked, are registered because of their artistic value in associa- a kind of botanical garden and plant nursery; Paço Im- tion with its utilitarian function, including some kinds perial, the former viceregal and imperial administrative of architecture, as well as examples of the decorative arts, center turned into an exhibition gallery; a museum for graphic arts and furniture. folklore and popular culture, Centro Nacional do Fol- Anyone can propose a listing to IPHAN, from within clore e Cultura Popular). The major divisions of IPHAN the agency or outside it, as long as the request is accom- are DEPAM, the Department of the Material Heritage, panied by written and graphic documentation justifying and DPI, the Department of Immaterial Heritage, which the proposal. DEPAM analyses the request, and submits work with members of the Advisory Council in two sec- its conclusions to the Chamber of Architecture and Ur- torial chambers, one for Architecture and Urbanism, the banism. The conclusions will be exposed and discussed in other for Immaterial Heritage. Chaired by the agency’s public hearings, and a certain amount of time is allotted president, the Advisory Council is composed by thirteen for eventual contestation and judicial appreciation. Then representatives from the civilian society, three representa- the dossier is submitted to the Advisory Council, which tives from ministries (Education, Tourism and Cities), hands it to one of its members for analysis and report, fol- two from federal agencies (IBRAM—Instituto Brasileiro lowed by written and verbal presentation, discussion and de Museus, dealing with museums, and IBAMA—Insti- voting. State heritage agencies complement the mission of 2 tuto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais the national heritage agency since the 1960s , and munici- renováveis, dealing with the environment), and four from pal heritage agencies since the 1980s. They all follow the national agency lead in procedural matters. national professional associations of architects, archeolo- gists, and anthropologists, along with the Brazilian branch of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Listing Modern Masterpieces Sites). The Advisory Council has always been IPHAN’s The national agency listed for the first time a modern maximum authority regarding listings. Protected cultural building in 1947, Niemeyer’s Chapel of St. Francis of goods were from the outset listed in four books, called Assisi at the Pampulha complex, a garden suburb of Belo Livros do Tombo. Horizonte. It had been completed two years before, and The first book is Livro do Tombo Arqueológico, Etnográ- was menaced of demolition by the municipal authori- fico e Paisagístico, the Book of Archeological, Ethnograph- ties. Recommending the chapel’s listing in the Fine Arts ic and Landscape Listing, where cultural goods are regis- Book, Costa said the building had become a ‘precocious tered because of: ruin’ (Costa 1999), notwithstanding its reception as a a. their archaeological value, as vestiges of prehistoric or masterpiece by prominent intellectuals in the country and historical human occupation; abroad. The following year the agency listed in the Fine b. their ethnographic or reference value for certain social Arts Book the monumental Ministry of Education, by groups; Costa and a team including Niemeyer and Affonso Ed- c. their landscape value, encompassing both natural areas uardo Reidy, at once reinforcing the status of the modern and manmade places including gardens as well as cities architects at the agency and protecting the building, de- or architectural ensembles. signed in 1936 and inaugurated in 1945, against eventual The second book is Livro do Tombo Histórico, the Book disfigurement. One decade later, Costa asked for the list- of Historic Listing, where cultural goods are registered ing in that same book of the Seaplane Station of Rio de because of their connections with memorable events or Janeiro, designed and built from 1937 to 1938 by Attilio moments in the history of Brazil, comprising real estate Correa Lima, Renato Soeiro, Jorge Ferreira, Renato Mes- (buildings, farms, landmarks, fountains, bridges, old quita e Tomás Estrela, and menaced of demolition by the downtowns, for example) as well as chattels (images, fur- imminent construction of a coastal highway. The wood niture, paintings and woodcuts, among other pieces). The building that housed the President of Brazil during the third book is Livro do Tombo das Belas Artes, the Book construction of Brasilia was listed in the Historic Book of Fine Arts Listing, where cultural goods are registered in 1959. Two preventive listings in the sixties involved

36 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 incomplete works, Niemeyer’s Brasilia Cathedral and the Anyway, the major surviving works of the Carioca Flamengo Park, with gardens by Burle Marx, and build- school and some works of the subsequent Paulista school ings by Reidy, including the Museum of Modern Art of are now listed, and cannot be demolished without permis- Rio de Janeiro, one of the links connecting the Carioca3 sion from the heritage agencies. Listing is no longer con- School, of purist connotations, to the later Paulista School, troversially preventive. Brazilian modern architecture is of brutalist connotations (Zein 2005; Comas 2015, 40–67). already fifty years of age or close to it. Its works are ancient The Cathedral was listed in the Fine Arts Book; Flamengo enough to warrant deliberate conservation and, if con- Park, in the Landscape Book. served, recycling responsive to cultural changes, retrofit to No building was listed during the Magalhães adminis- comply with technological advances and stricter codes; it tration, modern or otherwise. The pioneering Modernist is generally accepted that the best method of conserving a House of 1930 by Gregori Warchavchik in São Paulo, and historic building is to keep it in active use (Ireland 7.3.1). the Brazilian Press Association headquarters (ABI, in Por- Listing is not conservation. It prevents outright demoli- tuguese) by Marcelo and Milton Roberto were listed in the tion, but not ruination, which is piecemeal demolition, Fine Arts Book during the 1980s, along with two Costa even if considered a natural fate and therefore acceptable buildings of the 1940s, the Nova Friburgo Park Hotel and for the likes of John Ruskin (Ruskin 1849, 146–154). All the Guinle Park Apartments, and the Burle Marx Estate. the same, listing theoretically sets the guidelines for inter- The Pilot Plan of Brasilia and the Pampulha complex were ventions in listed buildings. Those should be justified, at listed in the 1990s both in the Fine Arts and the Landscape least partially, by the requirements of conservation; they Books, along with another pioneering work, the University should fight decay, avoid injury, and preclude loss. Since it Morgue by Luís Nunes in Recife, of 1937, listed in the Fine became IPHAN, the national heritage agency has no funds Arts Book. In the new century, listing so far has privileged of its own to pay for conservation work of whatever kind; state and municipal agencies never had them. All of them Niemeyer and Lina Bo Bardi. The 27 protected works of have been understaffed. Yet they are not powerless, for the former include the Government Palaces and many their cadres have the last word in any alteration of listed buildings in Brasilia along with his house in Rio and the buildings. Ibirapuera Park Complex in São Paulo; the four protected Owners and their architects can propose whatever al- works of the latter are the Museum of Art of São Paulo, teration they might wish; they cannot overrule the herit- her own house, the SESC Pompeia Leisure Centre, and the age agencies’ verdicts on their proposals. Nevertheless, Oficina Theater. Works listed in the Historic, Fine Arts, these verdicts can be problematic: in the last decades, and Landscape Books comprehend a company town of the heritage agencies have tolerated or approved interven- 1950s (Vila Serra do Navio by Oswald Arthur Bratke in tions that disfigured works of architecture recognised as Amapá), and an urban complex (Cataguases, a small town modern masterpieces in their listings. They were mischar- close to Rio featuring interesting work of the 1940s and the acterised, robbed of a distinctive trait, devalued. Their 1950s by Niemeyer, the Roberto Brothers and others), as artistic integrity—once called beauty—was impaired at well as a memorial (the Monument to the Dead of World the level of both multisensory perception (which includes War II in Flamengo Park by Marcos Konder Netto and vision and touch, image and substance, and cannot be Helio Ribas Marinho, 1957–60). The Castro Alves Theater reduced to either element of those pairs) and intellectual by Bina Fonyat in Salvador, dating from the 1960s, was stimulation (substance of another sort). listed in the Historic and Fine Arts Books. As noted, state and municipal listings complement the national listing; some predate the federal listing, a relevant example being Exemplary Case Studies the Ibirapuera Park, listed by CONDEPHAAT—Conselho Sadly, architects can disfigure their own work, or add to de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Arqueológico, Artísti- previous disfigurement, as Niemeyer did in several cases. co e Turístico, the heritage agency of the State of São Paulo, It can be a minor offense, like the replacement by seamless in 1992. That does not mean that the federal recognition concrete of the beautiful stone pavers and pebble joints at would not be welcome for highlights of the Paulista school the terraces of his house at Canoas Road (1953), in Rio de such as FAUUSP, the School of Architecture of the Univer- Janeiro, in a reform done in the 1970s, well before its list- sity of São Paulo, by Vilanova Artigas, or the Clube Atlé- ing. But it can affect the whole work, as in the case of the tico Paulistano Gymnasium by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Ouro Preto Grand Hotel (1941–1944). Ouro Preto was protected at the state and municipal levels only. a colonial mining town, the former capital of the state of

C. E. Dias Comas 37 Figure 1 Oscar Niemeyer, House at Canoas Road, Pavers and pebbles (Source: Papadaki 1956, 77). Figure 2 Oscar Niemeyer, House at Canoas Road, concrete floor after 1970 reform (Source: Leonardo Finotti). Figure 3 Oscar Niemeyer, Ouro Preto Grand Hotel, view with original endwall (Source: Mindlin 1956, 1 105).

2 3

Minas Gerais, proclaimed a National Monument in 1933, shows (Goodwin and Kidder-Smith 1943, 133), Niemeyer before SPHAN was created. The construction of the hotel inverted that relationship, playing the laciness of the front was the mayor’s initiative, and it was meant to be major elevation against the whitewashed surfaces of the neigh- urban equipment, as the adjective ‘grand’ indicated. Nie- boring townhouses (Figure 1–3). meyer’s project was exemplary, a long four-storey slab The Grand Hotel was not listed individually, but in- building on a steep hillside, echoing the Palace of Gover- cluded in the Ouro Preto listing. Its disfiguration started nors on the hilltop. The rear elevation, facing the slope, is when the balconies of the apartments were roofed with a calm low relief affair. Unlike the rear elevation and the tiles prolonging at a slightly different kevel the original aligned townhouses across the street, the front elevation monopitch, and nobody paid attention to it. IPHAN has is a riot of protruding and receding volumes, double and been understaffed almost from the outset. As a result, the triple height colossal stockades, and a void crossed by a blank side elevations lost the serrated profile that made public route. The monopitch tiled roof bowed to context, the hotel resemble a broken geode, and the front eleva- as did the detailing of the wood trellises, painted colonial tion acquire the flavor of an internal view. In Niemeyer’s blue, and the concrete pillars painted in a woodsy shade 1993 proposal for remodeling the hotel, the roofing would of brown. These inflections relate to the historic setting by be kept, and the balconies enclosed with hexagonal open- analogy (the pillars) as well as replication (the trellises), or ings, not unlike the kind of openings that could be seen gradation (the roof). In both cases they show other pos- in contemporary Niemeyer’s projects, such as Rio’s CIEP sibilities of relationship between new and old architecture schools. The pronounced formal contrast with the origi- than the usual contrast between modern planarity and nal hotel made it clear that Niemeyer was meeting his pre-modern texture. Indeed, as the photo in Brazil Builds younger ego in a new stylistic phase4. The dynamic formal

38 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 Figure 4 Oscar Niemeyer, Ouro Preto Grand Hotel, model of 1993 reform proposal (Source: 4 Rodrigo Queiroz).

complexity of the 1940s would disappear, as if straitjack- them. Niemeyer wanted then to demolish the tip of the eted or overwritten. To worsen things, the proposal was marquee, arguing that it did not harmonise with the new just a cover-up for adding another block to the rear of the auditorium, and that it prevented the creation of a suitable existing volume (Comas et al. 2008, 103–108) (Figure 4). entrance plaza, two assertions open to much debate5. Al- In that sense, IPHAN architects prevented the worst, though the architect exerted his considerable influence in but the old scars remain, and to them was added one order to get his fancy fulfilled, including a most awkward module of the new balcony, built as a test. Niemeyer’s walkway between Oca and the new auditorium, the con- proposal may seem to have been refused on the grounds servation agencies prevented that in 2004, on the reason- of the artistic integrity of the original work. Yet, no able grounds that a listed project belongs to the commu- measures were taken to effectively restore the hotel to its nity and not to its author. The situation raised questions former glory, when that would have been so simple: a lot about the validity of listing an incomplete project without of cleaning and coats of appropriate paint, besides the articulating sensible guidelines for its completion, but replacement of that tile roof doubling the height of the incompletion seems to have been valued for its own sake balconies by low-pitch polycarbonate sheets in the same both when the new auditorium was approved and when level as the existing one-storey high beams and side wall the demolition of the tip of the marquee was rejected. For indentation; still open, balconies could even accommo- incompletion too is romantic, speaking of historical vicis- date individual air conditioning units in an unobtrusive situdes and the passage of time. way. IPHAN preferred to highlight historical values and Paulo Mendes da Rocha and his young collaborators romantic decay instead of defending the plastic coherence reformed Oca in 2000 without controversy (Artigas 2007, of the original solution. 154; SPBR 2000). Oca is the rounded counterpoint to Niemeyer struck again at the Ibirapuera Park in 2002 the 250 m long Palace of the Industries behind, now the (Scharlach 2006). He refused to follow his own original Bienal Pavilion. This is a box of rectangular parallel plate plan, and was allowed to do a completely different audito- floor slabs cantilevered on a grid of point supports enliv- rium from the one designed in 1952, unfortunately unbuilt ened by a curvilinear void along the longitudinal axis in at that time for political and financial reasons; equally un- one extremity, where a ramp rises supported by a surreal built was the covered walkway that would have connected treelike column. Oca appears as a dome lifted from sci-fi the auditorium, the big marquee and the domical Palace movie of the 1950s, over circular parallel plate floor slabs of the Arts, re-baptised in 2000 as Oca, an Indian hut. The cut at the borders to generate surreal voids: the uppermost new auditorium, a trapezoidal volume, has intrinsic archi- roof slab resembles a rectangle with concave curvilinear tectural interest, but it does not relate to the earlier com- sides, and the second a similarly distorted regular hexa- position. It stands on axis with the dome whose geometric gon; the ground floor has two asymmetrical cuts giving minimalism it shares, but the marquee advances between a glimpse of the basement below. One of these voids

C. E. Dias Comas 39 1F 2F

-1F GF 5a

Figure 5a Oscar Niemeyer, original plans of Palace of Arts (Oca). (Source: Mindlin 1956, 188).

accommodates a horseshoe ramp; all of them contrast its colonnades, a long balcony for the inspection and stor- with a surprising straight alley on the entrance axis, lined age of visitors’ bags adds to the loss of axial directionality. by parallel rows of cylindrical columns. The impact of that The setup is theoretically reversible, complying with one setup was enormous. As entrance was devoid of any ob- of the current restoration mantras, but it is not going away stacle, it sucked the visitor as it entered. At the same time, so soon (Figure 6). it directed his attention to the peripheral cutouts, sponsor- Niemeyer had nothing to do with the Oca project, al- ing exceptional vertical episodes, and threw in evidence though answering to the programmatic challenges pre- the planar roof slabs and the horizontally expanding space sented by its new operational requirements could have they generated (Figure 5a, Figure 5b). strengthened his plaza and marquee demolition proposal. Oca was to be a venue for large traveling exhibitions. He was not responsible either for the conversion of Ibi- Its original use was not changed. However, its particular rapuera’s former Palace of Agriculture facing the Bienal requirements were no longer the same. New air condition- Pavilion across the avenue, into the Museum of Contem- ing ducts and electricity cables were needed to comply porary Art of the University of São Paulo, MACUSP. Re- with contemporary standards of comfort and perfor- markable for its ground floor V-shaped columns, it had mance. Exposed rather crudely, like tridimensional grafit- been for years the headquarters of the Transit Depart- ti, they mar the continuity of the ceiling and destroy the ment of the State of São Paulo. The relatively low floor- original assertiveness of the central alley. Perpendicular to to-ceiling heights were not unsuited to the nature of the

40 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 1F 2F

-1F GF

5b Figure 5b SPBR Arquitetos, 1999 reform plans of Palace of Arts (Oca) (Source: SPBR).

rich collection, consisting mostly of medium to small- the Executive Branch of Brazilian government in Brasilia, size paintings. Niemeyer had been hired in 2007 to do a given the public protests of the architect’s office against reform project, which was shelved due to high cost esti- the quality of that undertaking. An initiative of president mates. The task was then assigned to a bureaucratic state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself, it had been dutifully agency, Companhia Paulista de Obras e Serviços. The de- approved by IPHAN and carried out from 2008 to 2010. pressing result, inaugurated in 2012, is a riot of claustro- Air conditioning and fire escape requirements were this phobic dropped ceilings at several levels, to accommodate time compounded with the need for accommodating the ubiquitous air conditioning ducts and light fixtures, state-of-the-art live TV transmissions everywhere over plastered glass walls and external fire escape staircases. the place, and a garage for 500 cars. No public hearings The reform was approved despite initial protests of ar- were conducted, for reasons of state. What can one say? chitects from the heritage agencies. There is such a thing That at the very least one level of the dropped ceiling as architectural abuse and harassment, and curators that should have been coordinated with the panes of the glass should have known better can be the worst offenders, curtain wall? As in Oca, where change of use was a ques- adding to the pressures of safety codes and demands of tion of performance rather than of kind, the rationale for controlled environment (Figure 7, Figure 8). the reform was the combination of need and reversibility, It is unlikely that Niemeyer was consulted for the even if that reversibility is highly hypothetical in the near contemporary reform of Palacio do Planalto, the seat of future (Figure 9).

C. E. Dias Comas 41 6

7 8

Figure 6 Oscar Niemeyer, inte- rior of Palace of Arts (Oca) after reform (Source: Ruth Verde Zein). Figure 7 Oscar Niemeyer, exter- nal view of Palace of Agriculture (MAC-USP) with dropped ceil- ings (Source: the author). Figure 8 Oscar Niemeyer, inter- nal view Palace of Agriculture (MAC-USP) with dropped ceil- ings (Source: the author). Figure 9 Oscar Niemeyer, exter- nal view of Planalto Palace with duct behind glass wall (Source: 9 the author).

But Niemeyer did give his blessing to the conversion of like cheap Art Déco, accompanied by pendant lamps the Pampulha Dance Hall into the Centro de Referência taken out from the Jetsons comic strip: so much for the em Urbanismo, Arquitetura e Design de Belo Horizonte continuity of ceilings between the hall and the marquee, a gallery for exhibiting urban, architectural and design where the original embedded lamps remain to remind the projects, and he recommended to local architects Rafael visitor of past times. There is no way of confounding the Hardy Filho and Mariza Machado Coelho the inclusion new intervention with the original, but the full experience of an enclosed wedge-shaped auditorium in the quasi- of the original is also lost for the sake of a temporal truth- circular volume of the original hall, with diameter 20 m. fulness, which might be considered either expression of That intrusion breaks the hall’s spatial continuity and does illiteracy regarding modern architecture goals of outdoor- so needlessly, as acoustical privacy inside the auditorium indoor interconnection at the period, or post-modernist is non-existent, and its Lilliputian size suggests that a tem- presumption (Figure 10–12). porary setup with movable chairs would be a reasonable The fate of another masterpiece is also tied to delayed alternative. As if that was not enough, a dropped gypsum execution of one of its elements. This is the case of Af- ceiling hides the new air conditioning ducts, and it looks fonso Eduardo Reidy’s MAM—Museum of Modern Art

42 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 10 11

Figure 10 Oscar Niemeyer, interior view of Dance Hall after reform (Source: Leonardo Finotti). Figure 11 Oscar Niemeyer, external viewof Dance Hall with duct behind glass wall (Source: the author). Figure 12 Oscar Niemeyer, interior view of Dance Hall after reform 12 (Source: Leonardo Finotti).

in Rio de Janeiro (Bonduki 1999), designed in 1953 as nothing; renting the terraces for parties is the institution’s an additive composition of three blocks, the school, the major source of income. In principle, they are temporary museum proper and the theater, inscribed into a plat- structures, but did they need to be such an ugly, unkempt, form abutting the museum, a terrace above and a porte- and constant presence? MAM-Rio could learn about dif- cochère below. The school was finished in 1957, and the ferent ways of displaying ready-made elements. After all, museum in 1967; lack of funds prevented the construc- it is a museum of design too. On a more cheerful side, tion of the theater, but the platform was built as a whole the museum block is in great condition—it was rebuilt rectangle around 1968. A theater with a different pro- in 1985 following the original project after a tragic fire gram—a venue for concerts and shows—was proposed by that spared the structure only. Oval shaped and exposed private investors around 2003 and inaugurated in 2006. air conditioning ducts similar to those found in Oca are IPHAN architects fought for keeping the original volume not a problem. On the one hand, the structural exoskel- above the platform, but they accepted the demolition of eton means that there is no conflict between them and the ramp leading to its terrace, the greater occupation of freestanding columns that define both linear and radial the foyer below, and a truly sordid rear elevation, along grids. On the other hand, they are carefully positioned with reinforced concrete that did not match the origi- below the nerved floor slabs, so as to appear integrated nal. They could have been more relaxed more about that into a textured surface, or hidden into carefully plotted volume, and stricter about the other points. Meanwhile, gypsum board ceilings. As a noted English critic observed large plastic tents on metal poles inhabit the terraces of in 1941, modern architecture is a weave of many styles the building like parasites, and the Board of Trustees does (Summerson 1963, 212). Although Reidy’s museum is

C. E. Dias Comas 43 Figure 13 Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Museum of Modern Art, ground floor with ducts 13 (Source: Leonardo Finotti).

contemporary with Oca, it is epic instead of lyrical, be- the original architectural concept and allying itself to gen- longing to a distinct modern family than all the Niemey- trification, as is the case of the renovation of Park Hill in er’s projects here cited (Figure 13, Figure 14). Sheffield, where two-thirds of the original 1,000 council Reidy’s Pedregulho Social Interest Housing (1947– flats will be for private sale, with the help of public subsidy 1953) is the exception in this series. Justly praised and to the development (Moore 2011). badly kept, disfigured by life, so to say, it has been reno- vated sensibly from 2011 to 2015 by Alfredo Britto and Learning from Experience team, people that do not see differences in principle be- tween the restoration of a modern work of architecture All of the case studies here presented can be called re- and the restoration of any other work (Britto 2015). They forms of existing buildings. All but Pedregulho are pri- used all the relevant prospection techniques and methods marily retrofits, interventions that add a component or accepted in the field. Changes to Reidy’s project included accessory to something that did not have it when manu- the total replacement of wood by aluminum windows factured or built. Some involve the addition of elements with individual air conditioning units protruding from of construction and composition; some involve techno- them, ratifying an ongoing process that residents saw as logical updates. Only Pedregulho qualifies as a proper progress at the same time that it accepted economic reali- restoration project. Nevertheless, all of them show that, in ties. This was not a prestige operation like the restoration a crucial point, the restoration of or retrofit project for a of the classy Pirelli Tower, which carried the banner of modern building differs neither from similar projects for a Italian-driven theories of conservation and their con- non-modern building, nor from the architectural project cern with the preservation of materiality against the more for a new building. The choices they imply cannot help pragmatic American and German stands, as shown by being the result of a political process, in which persuasion, another prestige operations, the restoration respectively of prestige, power, intuition, knowledge, taste and belief, all Lever House in New York, and of the Thyssen Building in play a part, not to mention budget and schedule. Restora- Dusseldorf, which opted for the total replacement of their tion and retrofit projects can never be exact, the product curtain-walls (Salvo 2002; Kuhl 2006; Salvo 2006; Salvo of rigorously testable theories based on precise or absolute 2008). Restoration was understood here as renovation that measurements. Too many incalculable variables enter into brings the building to a good state of repair, approximat- play in an unspecified number (Cartwright 1973)6. Too ing but not fully matching the original physical condition. many actors are involved, their influence and authority Pedregulho became no less a cultural reference than it was often asymmetrical. The existence of different schools of (Figure 15). The result demonstrates that a mature under- conservation reinforces the point. For instance, the ac- standing of the compromises demanded by inhabitation ceptable degrees of rifacimento and ripristino are not the and budget does not necessarily lead to a reform betraying same everywhere. Latins tend to follow the Venice Charter

44 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 appeal to history discredits discussion of design decisions and their artistic quality. The former stresses the imper- sonalism of methodology. The latter stresses a documental character that tends to level in importance all interven- tions in a building’s life. Taken together, they downplay the restorer’s or the retrofit designer’s artistic responsibil- ity concerning the existing building and exaggerate it con- cerning any new element. A bias towards formal contrast is disguised as or confounded with the pursuit of histori- cal authenticity in order not to fool historians, those cred- 14 ulous types. Emphasis is on picturesque, even disordered change: heteromorphism signals heterochrony, a way of endorsing stylistic eclecticism without guilt, further alle- viated by demanding that new interventions be reversible, and potentially ephemeral. Generational change within the staff of Brazilian heritage agencies contributed to this alliance in the 1980s and 1990s, when criticism of the modernist legacy in patrimonial conservation rose. The denial of artistic value to eclectic 19th-century architec- ture seemed now indefensible at the level of taste as well as history, and so did the lack of scientific rigor in many restorations of colonial monuments. The very primacy of architecture in conservation efforts came under attack, as much as the primacy of the work of architecture seen in isolation, not to mention the understanding of architec- ture as a fine art, which was equated to elitist estheticism (Motta 1987; Fonseca 2005; Chuva 2009). No wonder then that a veiled opposition was born in the Brazilian heritage agencies to the pursuit of archi- tectural unity endowed with transhistorical value, even if aware that different parts of a building have different 15 life spans (Comas 2007, 35–52). For it would lead to the Figure 14 Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Museum of Modern Art, second minimisation of the marks documenting a building’s past floor with ducts (Source: Leonardo Finotti). vicissitudes. It would have disavowed Camillo Boito and Figure 15 Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Pedregulho Social Interest Housing, individual AC units after restoration (Source: the author). returned to Viollet-le-Duc, who proclaimed that ‘to restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair, or rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which might of 1964, particularly Italians and their Brazilian disciples; never have existed at any given time’ (Boito 1884; Viollet- Anglo-Americans and Northern Europeans, the Burra le-Duc 1866, 14–34). Often vilified, seldom read with at- Charter of 1999. Reactions to José Oubrerie’s delayed tention, the statement introduces a reflection that deserves completion of Saint-Pierre de Firminy were not unani- a second look, because Brazilian modern artistic master- mous, and too many criticisms forgot that he was from the pieces were intended as unified compositions to be com- outset a co-author of the project. pleted in a relatively short time-span, including Brasilia Scientism—the excessive belief in the power of scien- itself. They were not thought of as works-in-progress for tific knowledge and techniques professed by many conser- centuries like Gothic cathedrals or Barcelona’s Sagrada Fa- vationists—is an ally of the romanticism behind the herit- milia. It is telling that Niemeyer did not forsake formal co- age agencies’ attitudes towards the retrofits here presented. herence in his less than fortunate renovation proposals for The appeal to science discredits discussion of design de- the Ouro Preto Grand Hotel and the Ibirapuera Park new cisions and their authorship (Comas 1986, 33–46). The entrance plaza. Last but not least, apart from Pedregulho,

C. E. Dias Comas 45 no example here discussed was in really bad shape before that ‘the contemporary architecture said modern is not a its proposed retrofit, and that was why they were candi- mere question of license, or of improvisation due to per- dates for retrofit in the first place instead of restoration. sonal caprice’ (Costa 1962b, 199), but ‘the masterly, cor- Arguably, the opposition between Viollet-le-Duc and rect and magnificent play of volumes brought together in Boito has been overemphasised by the latter’s disciples. light,’ to use the words of his own master (Le Corbusier The Frenchman had no qualms about demolishing sty- 2004, front cover), and ‘correct’ suggests that a regime of listically diverse additions to medieval buildings, but he freedom—free plan, and free façade—does not dispense saw that absolute positions regarding the reinstatement constraints the paralysed section, according to Colin of a unity of style in these buildings were unreasonable. Rowe (Rowe 1976, 140–158). The issue with the ducts at Each case had its own peculiarities, making generalisa- the renovated Oca and Dance Hall is that they are at odds tions difficult. For instance, he welcomed the conserva- with the strong geometries and the free plan concept of tion of anachronistic technological improvements if they the original projects, unlike, for instance, as pointed out, prolonged the livability of a building. Gutters in a 12th- the ducts at MAM-Rio; if there is no need to make a fetish century medieval church are always later additions, as of spatial continuity, its total obliteration amounts to de- they did not come in use until the 13th century. Taking it plorable architectural impoverishment at Palácio do Plan- for granted that the gutters did not affect substantially the alto and Palácio da Agricultura converted into MACUSP. church’s appearance, Viollet-le-Duc thought they ought More sympathetic interventions that do not rule out desir- to be kept unlike the anachronistic yet still Gothic single able retrofit are easy to envisage in all cases. vault that destroyed the unity of a church aisle without any Costa was quick to point out the responsibility of the structural advantage. He would not accept gas lighting, modern architect regarding design decisions. He called because there were alternatives that would not interfere into question two opposite stands regarding the genera- with the building’s original fabric. Nevertheless, he would tion of modern architectural form: on the one hand, its not mind the introduction of heating equipment, for no techno-programmatic determination; on the other hand, churchgoer should get a cold because of archeology; and its derivation from the designer’s intuition operating in then the required chimney should not be dissimulated, a cultural vacuum. In this sense, the opposition between but taken advantage of, this material need turned into a Boito and Viollet-le-Duc is very real. For Viollet-le-Duc decoration motif all evidence suggesting a preference for did not dissimulate his authorial condition, while Boito formal gradation rather than contrast. paraded neutrality as the restorer’s ethical obligation, By the same token, the addition to a modern fabric of based on the concept of material authenticity. Regardless newer technological improvements leading to greater liv- of Costa’s stand on this debate, it is far from being set- ability should not be condemned, although the introduc- tled. In Italy, the Carta della conservazione e del restauro tion of central air conditioning equipment in a minimalist degli oggetti d’arte e di cultura of 1987 replaced the Carta building is usually problematic. In its eagerness to sym- del restauro of 1972 (Marconi 1993, 207–228). The latter bolise modernity, modern architects condemned as deco- was shaped by Boito’s critical-conservative heirs like Gi- ration many technologically useful building elements, as useppe Carbonara. The former was coordinated by Paolo sharp critics remarked (Piacentini 1931, 528–539; Perret Marconi, who defended Viollet-le-Duc’s stylistic restora- 1936, 238–239). As a rule, until the 1950s modern archi- tion against the proliferation of ‘decorative and structural tecture lacked poché, the redundancy of material, mass patchworks.’ Nevertheless, in situations such as the retro- and cavities that makes it easy to add up-to-date ducts to fits discussed here, there is no need to take a stand on that pre-modern architecture. All the same, there is an enor- debate to realise that the ‘neutrality’ of the reviewers is far mous difference between treating the design of ducts as from inconsequential and amounts to pure irresponsibil- an autonomous variable within a minimalist envelope and ity: the unnecessary sacrifice of integrity to livability, and sub-ordinating it to the compositional logic of the build- artistic to historical values is not conservation. ing, which at the end of the day is clearly more relevant Masters of the Carioca and the Paulista schools are than unity of style. After all, mastermind Costa defined mostly gone nowadays; they cannot bully as Niemeyer architecture as ‘construction conceived with the intention once did. More modern buildings are likely to be listed, and of ordering and organising space in a plastic way correlat- the need will increase for reviewing and supervising the ed with a given epoch, a given milieu, a given technology, execution of restoration and/or retrofit projects. IPHAN and a given program’ (Costa 1962a, 113) and observed and its complementary agencies could well prepare for

46 BUILT HERITAGE 2018 / 2 these duties by analysing in depth past experiences, recog- Notes nising failures and learning from them. Listing is not con- 1. Casa de Lucio Costa. servation, as observed, but it sets the guidelines for future 2. State of Rio Grande do Sul: DPHAE, then IPHAE- interventions, and in that sense it affects them not unlike 1964/ State of Rio de Janeiro: DPHARJ, then INEPAC the first lineaments of an architectural program. Perhaps 1965/ State of São Paulo: CONDEPHAAT 1968/ State future listings should be more precise in the connection of Minas Gerais: IEPHA 1971/ State of Pernambuco: between the values that justify the conservation and those FUNDARPE 1971. guidelines. And reviewers, it should be emphasised, are 3. Carioca means native of Rio, Paulista, of São Paulo. in one way or another co-authors of the projects they 4. This is the corollary of higher life expectancy, post- analyse. Their input is not literary; it bears on the project ponement of professional retirement and overvalua- under scrutiny. Called to act as architectural critics, they tion of originality in a culture that does not seem par- ought to become architecturally literate and technologi- ticularly interested in refinement within continuity. cally savvy even if they did not train as architects. It is 5. Indeed, modern artists are often reluctant to regard their not so difficult, granted a minimum of spatial intelligence works as finished and no longer in their full possession; and a striving for quality, with a little help from centuries- metaphorically, it is as if they were parents trying to old technologies like model-making and newer ones like curtail the autonomy of grown up children, or as if they photo-montage, particularly effective when put at the ser- were delaying delivery after selling their works. vice of comparing alternatives. In its first years, SPHAN 6. According to the useful distinction between simple was able to hire young architects to do in-house projects. problems, compound problems, complex problems, The Ouro Preto Grand Hotel was one of them, commis- and metaproblems, the latter defined in terms of an sioned by the town mayor. Four projects were drawn in unspecified number of incalculable variables. succession, first a neo-colonial pastiche that historicists loved by Carlos Leão, another member of the Ministry team; then three by Niemeyer, with Costa brought in as a References counsel: a flat-roofed modern proposal which enthralled Artigas, Rosa, ed. 2007. Paulo Mendes da Rocha: Projetos modern purists, a dual-pitched tiled roof variant, and the 1999–2006. São Paulo: Cosac Naify. richer final solution already described, full of ambiguities, Boito, Camillo. 1884. I Restauratori: conferenza tenuta an architecture promoting ‘both and’ rather than ‘either al’Exposizione di Torino 7 Giugno 1884 [The Restor- or’. There was no air conditioning involved, but there were ers: Conference Held at the Turin Exposition June 7th issues of climactic control and services. The debate was 1884]. Florence: G. Barbèra Editore. intense, and it was not limited to theoretical generalities; Bonduki, Nabil, ed. 1999. Affonso Eduardo Reidy. São it tackled the concrete architectural problem with both Paulo: ILBPMBardi; Lisboa: Blau. rigor and creativity. For instance, comparison between the Britto, Alfredo. 2015. Pedregulho: o sonho pioneiro da projects relied also on photomontages with models, taken habitação social no Brasil [Pedregulho: the Pioneering from the same viewpoint. It ended up with a novel solu- Dream of Social Housing in Brazil]. Rio de Janeiro: tion where the new relates to the old both by similarity Edições de Janeiro. and graded difference, rather than stark contrast. (Comas Cartwright, T.J. 1973. “Problems, Solutions and Strategies: 2002) The breakthrough was recognising that there is A Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Plan- not one solution only, and that the process of choosing ning.” Journal of the American Institute of Planners 39 between alternative solutions is argumentative, implying (3): 179–187. divergence (consideration of different alternatives) and Casa de Lucio Costa. 2018. “Document II.B.03-01468.” convergence (selection of one outcome only). Although Accessed June 6 2018. www.jobim.org/lucio/ the Grand Hotel was not a restoration, it might well be Chuva, Marcia. 2009. Os arquitetos da memória: soci- considered a retrofit in terms of the listed environment in ogênese das práticas de preservação do patrimônio which it would rise, and the process by which it became cultural no Brasil (anos 1930–1940) [The Architects implemented relevant for both kinds of project. of Memory: Socio-Genesis of Practices of Preserva- tion of Cultural Heritage in Brazil (1930–1940)]. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. Cohen, Jean-Louis. 2004. Le Corbusier 1887–1965: The

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